Maryland officials have stockpiled two-and-a-half years’ worth of abortion pills, joining several other Democrat-led states as the nation waits for a decision out of a federal appeals court that could decide the availability of the drug, called mifepristone.
“The state decided to stockpile mifepristone back in April after a federal judge in Texas temporarily stopped the use of the drug, stating the Food and Drug Administration improperly approved it 23 years ago,” WYPR, an NPR affiliate, reported on Monday.
Maryland’s Democrat Gov. Wes Moore announced that the state’s Department of Health and the University of Maryland Medical Center would work to obtain the abortion pills in case mifepristone is taken off the market.
“We made that decision [to store two-and-a half-years-worth of the drug] based on both how we do stockpiles in general, and also expiration dates of the medications,” Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman, MDH’s deputy secretary for public health services, told WYPR. “We believe that will give us enough time if the landscape changes on us to be able to provide that medication while we look for more than two- or three-year solutions.”
The abortion pills cost the state roughly $1.2 million using state funds from the Board of Public Works, according to the report.
The pro-abortion governors of California, Massachusetts, Washington, and Oregon have all made similar announcements, with their states stockpiling enough abortion pills to end the lives of millions of unborn babies.
Mifepristone is the first drug used in a two-drug medication abortion regimen. In the process of medication abortion, mifepristone is used to block the action of progesterone, which the mother’s body produces to nourish the pregnancy. When progesterone is blocked, the lining of the mother’s uterus deteriorates, and blood and nourishment are cut off to the developing baby, who then dies inside the mother’s womb. The drug misoprostol (also called Cytotec) then causes contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from the mother’s uterus.
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute found that mifepristone is used for more than half of all abortions in the United States. In 2020, the drug accounted for 53 percent of all abortions, up from 39 percent in 2017.